The several items that will be made into the pillow cover.

• A length of green cotton velvet purchased from a thrift store scrap bin.
• A length of green and gold braid salvaged from a costume that failed
• A length of black and gold trim salvaged from a friend's "to the trash" pile
• A pillow purchased from a thrift store
• An embroidery, made from salvaged materials, and itself salvaged from its original mounting

The embroidery features a woman holding a gonfalon; the dags of the gonfalon are embellished with a red pale on a white base for the Middle Kingdom and a red seablatt inverted for Sept Pendray. The main body of the gonfalon is the populace badge for Northshield. 

(Yes, it's a self-portrait, from my days as an apprentice.)

The cartoon for the embroidery, still in my files after all these years, with original design notes to the side. I had intended to diaper the background, but, like several other things, the diapering did not make it to the final product.

It started out as a whim, made with what I had to hand. The embroidery is on a linen ground salvaged from a pre-printed crewel kit; the embroidery done with a combination of crewel wools and knitting-weight yarn (also salvaged). I had traced the design from the cartoon to the cloth with a black washable marker.

The need to cover every inch of the cloth with the thick yarn is part of why some of the design elements were elimentated; the resulting ground was so thick and distorted that I couldn't comfortably embellish it any more.

The back of the embroidered panel. It had originally been mounted to a larger heraldic banner made of inexpensive cotton/poly canvas in red and green.

The panel was mounted with a very firm Wonder-Under type of material and then sewn down to the banner.

However, the overall effect of the embroidery on the inexpensive canvas was not to my liking, and so I used the banner as a curtain in my home for several years. In time, the constant exposure to the sun discolored the canvas, and I took it down.

The mounting was so firm that there was nothing for it; the embroidered panel had to be cut away and the mounting left intact.

I decided to switch out the cotton velvet for some green crushed panne stretch velvet scraps. I made a dress out of this stuff as a gift and had plenty of scraps. It's pretty enough and using it would leave the cotton velvet for use in SCA dresses--something the panne velvet can't do. I also switched out the initial pillow for this rectangular feather pillow I bought in a thrift store. 

The scraps were fairly large and oddly shapped, and were just enough to cover the pillow. And, honestly, the panne velvet will be less work, as the edges won't need finishing.

Unfortunately, the combinations of materials didn't run through my sewing machine well, and I was too impatient to dink around with the tension settings every time I switched from the various sections. It all worked best when I was pulling on the velvet a little, but this left the center, under the embroidery, under tension and made the embroidery bow. I cut a small hole in the center to relieve the tension. In a way, it's a happy accident, because I can now tuck a little packet of dried lavender in there, thereby scenting the pillow.

These flipped over views represent the moment after the embroidery is sewn down, and after the trim is (mostly) sewn down. The tension versus muliple layers, sections, and materials issue would force me to finish off the application of the trim by hand.

Hard to see here, but the pattern had to be created by just pinning the various pieces together. There wasplenty of excess in some spots, and other spots barely came together. The shapes were odd, as mentioned, and there were no straight lines in sight. The back has an opening, hinted at in this picture, so that the cover can be used on other pillows and removed for cleaning if needed.

The cover, sewn and put on the pillow. The second braid, the green and gold, wasn't used--it was hardly noticable against the panne. The black and gold trim sets off the trim nicely,  I think. Of course, the embroidery is fairly late Gothic looking while the trim is fabulously Rennaisance in pattern, but it's hardly worth quibbling about; I just wanted a new setting for my embroidery that would be a nice ambiance piece. I believe I've met that goal.

I may add tassles to the 4 corners, I think that would be a nice, easy embellishment.

A very simple heraldic pillow by Mistress Ghita; the red sun is the primary charge on the arms of Master Thorvald Redhair.

A nicely embroidered set of pillows for the Prince and Princess of Northshield. These are the full-field sort of pilows I often see in my travels.